Quote (RedFromWinter @ 9 Feb 2023 00:57)
you forgot to quote the very next sentence from the article:
Quote
More recently, he ignited controversy with a report disputing the Obama administration's version of the 2011 killing of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in a U.S. special forces operation, and another accusing Syrian rebels of staging an August 2013 sarin nerve agent attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds of civilians.
i actually read his blog:
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-streamhe doesn't provide ANY concrete evidence, he literally just tells a story around what is admittedly a good motive (at a cursory glance at least) for the US to blow up the pipeline. the anonymous source he refers to is allegedly someone "with knowledge" of "the planning". that's what the whole story is built upon. do you find that convincing and credible? to me it looks like attention seeking, but i could be wrong of course.
to be perfectly clear, this is not me saying it is impossible it happened that way - as a matter of fact, i still consider the US to be the 2nd most likely culprit, right behind russia. it's just that anyone who claims to know for a fact what happened, without presenting any kind of evidence or credible sources, simply shouldn't be taken seriously.
my main problem with this version is not that i suddenly consider the US a fundamentally moral actor that simply wouldn't betray, deceive, or sabotage its long standing allies (lol), of course not - but i would consider the risk (if caught it's basically an act of war, certainly a huge diplomatic incident that would strain relations to the max, and inevitably result in unprecedented consequences between two of the largest economic partners of the world) too high, and the reward too low: germany had already stopped importing gas from russia, and was looking for alternatives - and it was obvious that relations with russia wouldn't normalise any time soon, meaning the already highly controversial project was basically dead anyway.
to be fair, there are arguments that speak against russia as a culprit as well, but their risk was significantly lower, as relations were already frosty due to their invasion of ukraine.
This post was edited by fender on Feb 8 2023 08:10pm